The sole point raised by the appeal concerns the direction under section 240 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The direction was that the time served by the appellant in custody on remand after he admitted the offences to which he was sentenced should count towards his sentence, but not the time served prior to his admission of guilt. It is submitted on the appellant’s behalf that that direction was wrong in principle and that the whole period served in custody on remand should count towards the sentence.
Held: ‘The normal and proper way to reflect a defendant’s failure to acknowledge his guilt by a plea of guilty at the first reasonable opportunity is by withholding any discount for plea (in a case of a defendant who is convicted after a trial) or given a reduced discount (in the case of a defendant, like this appellant, who pleads guilty but not at the first reasonable opportunity). To withhold the normal section 240 direction on top of withholding or reducing the discount for plea was correctly described by Mr Strongman as taking the same matter into account twice over. That is wrong in principle.’
Citations:
[2008] EWCA Crim 1613, , [2009] 1 Cr App Rep (S) 63
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Criminal Sentencing
Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.343028